The Fox News town hall featuring former President Donald Trump on Wednesday night significantly outperformed the final Republican debate preceding the Iowa caucuses.
The CNN-hosted debate also included former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
The Republican frontrunner participated in a one-hour live town hall event alongside Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum of Fox News.
Throughout this election cycle, he has abstained from attending any primary debates featuring his Republican opponents.
Haley and DeSantis, who are tied in the polls for second place in Iowa’s impending caucus, engaged in a CNN-broadcast two-hour debate in Des Moines, Iowa.
Wednesday evening at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time, both events commenced simultaneously; however, the CNN debate continued for an additional hour.
Early Nielsen Media Research data indicates that the Fox News town hall featuring Trump attracted an average of 4.3 million viewers, with 553,000 of them falling within the 25-54 age group, during the hour in which the two programs coincided.
In contrast, CNN’s debate aired at the same time, attracting 2.58 million viewers, including 479,000 viewers aged 25-54. With 68% more total viewers during the same time window, Fox’s event surpassed CNN by a double-digit percentage.
The most recent viewership figures for Fox indicate that the latest recorded town hall outperformed last months, which featured Trump and host Sean Hannity, by attracting an average of 3.2 million viewers, of which 375,000 were between the ages of 25 and 54.
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